Wiring harnesses are commonly used in automobiles, aircraft, spacecraft, watercraft, industrial equipment, alarm systems, sound systems, computer systems, and various types of machinery or electronics which require conductive wire. Wiring harnesses function to bind wires together in an organized manner and protect them against dirt, moisture, and the adverse effects of vibration and abrasion. Wiring harnesses can be configured to provide one connection point for multiple wiring configurations.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,147,508 describes a wire holding device with a seal holding member having an insertion hole into which an electric wire is inserted into an opening. The seal holding member being configured to be housed in an attachment hole formed on an attachment target, an outer periphery sealing member for sealing a gap between an inner surface of the attachment target inside the attachment hole and the seal holding member, an inner periphery sealing member for sealing a gap between the electric wire and the seal holding member, and a wire holder aligned with the seal holding member along the electric wire. The seal holding member and the wire holder are relatively movable in a circumferential direction to the electric wire.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,120,435 describes a wire harness holder for securing a wire harness to a panel. The wire harness holder includes a body including a fastening portion to fasten the body to the panel, a channel to receive the wire harness therein. The channel extends in a serpentine configuration so as to form a drip loop portion therein and is defined by a pair of opposed side walls connected by a bottom wall. The body further includes means for facilitating retention of the wire harness within the body. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 9,136,048 discloses a wire harness protector having a trunk wire insertion portion and a branch wire insertion portion that projects from a peripheral edge of a branch wire outlet provided to one or two side walls in a center length direction of the trunk wire insertion portion.
Wiring harnesses of the prior art are susceptible to becoming dislodged from their housing areas as a result of vibration or temperature changes. When wiring harnesses become dislodged, or if wiring harnesses sit loosely in their housing areas, the wires are prone to chafing which can ultimately lead to short circuits and even to wire breakage which creates an open circuit. As a result of chafing over time, the wires can become damaged and cause damage to any attached or nearby electrical devices. Prior art wiring harnesses are also costly to manufacture because multiple wiring harness molds are required to accommodate various wire arrangements and wire sizes.
The conventional procedures used in manufacturing connector plugs through which multiple wires pass are limited to geometric configurations which will allow for them to be manufactured by overmolding. More specifically, all of the wires passing through such conventional connector plugs must be aligned in the relatively straight row to allow for removal from the mold. This necessitates that the connector plug must be long enough in a given direction to allow for all of the wires to be aligned in that direction. This can put undesired limitations on the geometry of conventional connector plugs. This can be problematic in current applications in which it is necessary for dozens of wires to pass through a connector plug in a wiring harness. Accordingly, there is a need for a wiring harness having a connector plug therein which offers increased flexibility, higher reliability, better durability, and which can be manufactured in a more cost effective manner.
FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 depict wiring harnesses and their application in an automotive tail lamp assembly of the prior art. FIG. 1A is an exploded view showing the bulkhead 50 and an array of wires 51, a gasket 52, and a turnably tightenable plug 53 which is adapted for attachment to a hole 54 in the bulkhead 50. FIG. 1B illustrates the structure as assembled showing the array of wires 51 passing through the bulkhead 50 through the turnably tightenable plug 53. FIG. 2 depicts an automotive tail lamp assembly 55 which includes a wiring harness 56 with wires 51 which extend through the bulkhead 50 of the lamp assembly 55 into the internal cavity 57 thereof. As can be seen, the wires 51 pass from a connector 58 and they extend through the turnably tightenable plug 53 and ultimately extend to a lighting array 59 including a plurality of lights 60 such as incandescent lights, fluorescent lights, light emitting diodes (LEDs) or the like. This prior art design has the inherent problem associated with the turnably tightenable plug irreversibly engaging into the bulkhead which means it can fail to provide adequate sealing due to improper installation during assembly or loosening by vibration or other external factors over time. During assembly, the turnably tightenable plug must be pushed into the hole in the bulkhead with sufficient force against a gasket to provide for proper engagement to allow for the turnably tightenable plug to be rotated into a secure position. However, such conventional turnably tightenable plugs of the prior art do not typically lock into position to provide a reliable and permanent seal.